In English

Writing to someone on the subject of confession, Saint Nikolaj had this to say: You want to know if confession is so important. At one time you used to go more frequently for confession, but you stopped because somebody mocked you for it. You shouldn’t have stopped. Who haven’t people mocked? Do you know what the most perspicacious of all people said: ‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep’ (Luke 6, 25). You write that, apart from your trade, you’ve also got a vine which is very productive because you look after it well. If somebody else had a vine, abandoned it and then mocked you for taking care of yours, would you throw your ...

The Annual Spiritual Clergy Retreat of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada) took place from October 2 — 5, 2017, in Kingston, Ontario. The retreat was organized by Fr. P. Avgeropoulos, President of the Presbyters Council. There was an excellent program, which was flawlessly executed. Warmest congratulations to Fr. P. Avgeropoulos and the Executive of the Presbyters Council. Speakers and Presentations “Whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:32) — Fr. Α. Allain. Every Community as a microcosm of our Holy Metropolis — Metropolitan Sotirios. The Priest as liturgist and catechist: Teaching the Divine Liturgy and liturgical uniformity — Fr. Ν. Mostratos. Confession of Faith and Youth — Fr. C. Chatzis. Clergy Relations with ...

If people are to live, to become complete, they have to receive Grace. It’s our right to hold, to experience in our heart, the Holy Spirit, Who is, exists, lives, acts and functions in the Church. This is why, above all else,the Orthodox Church is the mother of Grace and gives her children everything the human soul requires. This is why, by living a proper life, being properly inducted into the Church, we can enjoy all that’s beautiful, pleasing and sweet. And there’s nothing sweeter than God’s Grace.

Anyone reading or hearing today’s Gospel (the raising of the son of the widow in Nain) can form their own thoughts and conclusions. One thing which people might think of and wonder about is why God doesn’t show the same compassion in all cases of the loss of a young person and also why there aren’t any such miracles and resurrections in our own day. Many people are confused by this and some find it a challenge to their faith. But the fact that young people are being lost today doesn’t mean that God is uncompassionate and harsh. It’s simply that, in these cases, human reason is unable to comprehend God’s compassion, which transcends our ways of thinking. We’re unable to ...

My mind has been returning lately to this article as I think about issues between Christianity and the State. It has become an increasingly common legal opinion in the Western world that religion is an inward belief, aprivate matter. At the same time it has used this understanding to restrict various expressions of belief. In some nations the hijab (scarf) is being forbidden in schools. Personal crosses have been banned from the work place. Roman Catholic institutions are being required to provide birth control for employees in the US. There is growing concern among some that the same development of thought might seek to punish religious groups who do not recognize same-sex unions. The essential problem is the failure to acknowledge that religion is a ...

Three things are necessary. We should have our mind in heaven; our heart should be the throne of God; and our mouth should be a church.

Stem Cell Research: Aspects from the Orthodox Christian Perspective Abstract In this short paper I want to throw a little light on Stem Cell Research from an Orthodox Christian ethical point of view. Those who are in favour of embryonic stem cell research recognize that they balance in the moral dilemma between the destruction of human embryos and the treatment of already living patients. But, the destruction of human embryos is not acceptable in any kind of research, treatment and therapy from an ethical point of view. In contrary the use of somatic (adult) stem cells in research and therapies would be a welcome alternative choice and ethically acceptable practice. Introduction Many scientists, coming from human and law sciences mainly, ask often why theologians are ...

Foucault considers the view which examines authority as something which arises from social institutions to be wrong. Authority extends far beyond institutions. The existence of centralized mechanisms of power is the result of a series of relations of authority/impositions which differentiate children from adults, students from teachers or families and subjects or citizens from the administration. Relationships of authority enter into all mechanisms and institutions, with the result that their existence is not restricted to these. For Foucault, the notion of the political is the sum total of the power relations in a society which are equivalent to relations of authority. Authority is not a form of merchandise; it is not something which can be acquired and then transferred. According to ...

Justice redeems souls from death, it’s the guide to what is good, because the start of the good path is to act justly. Those who pursue justice love God. Justice fortifies those who practice it and is the rule by which we should measure every action in our lives.

The new heresies which led to the Second Ecumenical Council After the end of the First Ecumenical Council, some other heresies appeared. which misunderstood not only the Trinitarian doctrine, but also Christological and Pneumatological one. The fathers of these heresies were Macedonius, Marcellus, Eunomius and Apollinarius. Macedonius I was the bishop of Constantinople during the mid-fourth century. He was an Arian, and with the support of Emperor Constantius II, the Semi-Arian party was able to install him as the bishop of Constantinople. Macedonius had been appointed Bishop of Constantinople after the deposition and subsequent murder of Paul (a Nicene), but was himself in turn deposed by the Synod of Constantinople in 360 A.D.. Macedonius had the temerity to teach blasphemously of the ...

How is it possible for your children to become good people when you yourselves often become angry in front of them and swear by the holy things? When you take what’s not yours and cheat other people? When you steal and lie, when you slander and commit perjury? When the whole of your mind and your efforts are on material things? When you take no care of your soul, don’t even go to confession, take communion, don’t pray or study improving or religious literature? Put all that sort of thing out of your mind. It’s impossible for your children to become good people unless you, as parents, set them a good example. And if it ever happens that you get ...

Shortly before He was taken away to be put to death, Christ turned to His heavenly Father and addressed Him in fervent prayer. The prayer is so important for the spiritual formation of the Church that it’s known in Greek as the “Archiepiscopal Prayer”. In it, Jesus prays for the disciples He’s leaving and, at the same time, reveals the Person of the Divine Father and His relationship with the Son. Today, the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Synod in Nicea, we shall recall this prayer in the Gospel reading (Jn. 17, 1-13)   If we look carefully at the content of this prayer, we can see immediately the concern of Christ, the Chief Shepherd, for his flock. ...

It was a pleasure to see how Elders Paisios and Elder Porfyrios thought about each other. One of the monks said to Elder Paisios: ‘I’d like to talk to you about something I’ve discussed with Elder Porfyrios’. ‘If you’ve talked to Elder Porfyrios, you don’t need to talk to me as well, because he’s a coloured satellite television and I’m only a black and white set’. That was the humble view of the Elder. On the other hand, Elder Porfyrios told us: ‘The Grace that Elder Paisios has is worth more than mine, because he’s acquired it through great efforts and ascetic sweat, whereas God gave me mine completely for free, when I was still very young, simply so that I could be of help ...

Those who belong to the Church of Christ belong to the truth, and those who don’t belong to the truth don’t belong to the Church of Christ. People who are very tall and those who are very short are both just as far away from the stars.

The faithful who cheerfully shoulder their Cross are the basis of a well-regulated state, one which builds its progress on Christian morality, selfless love, active hope, harmony and mutual understanding. Cross-bearing Christians are the bulwark against the moral and economic crisis in our society. The moral decline of people who don’t shoulder their cross gladly and patiently has brought about today’s economic crisis, which, nevertheless, is ‘the disciplinarian to bring us to Christ’ (Gal. 3, 24), because it brings us close to Him, because it forces us to rein in our excessive demands and to increase our trust in Him. The economic crisis teaches us to abandon extroversion and to concentrate on full knowledge of our self, this unknown quantity ...

c. The word of God, the Mysteries and sacramentalism. The correct understanding of “mystery” was always the touchstone of Christian teaching and life – not only in the early Christian community, when the Church contended with an assortment of mystery cults, but also much later, when an exclusively scholastic theology developed (in both the West, and the East) a sacramentalistic view of the Christian mysteries. It is worth remembering that the crux of that theological conflict during the Reformation was a sacramentalistic view of the Holy Eucharist, which tragically ended in the complete departure of Protestant theology from the original mysteriology of the undivided Church. The dialectical antithesis between “sacramentalism” (which dominated pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic theology, but also some ...

Both eastern and western Christians, on first hearing of Western Orthodoxy, often ask such questions as “Who are these people?” or “Why haven’t I heard of them before?” Source: /www.allsaints-stl.org/ First, who are Western Orthodox Christians? Simply, they are those Christians of the West who have discovered the truth of Orthodoxy and who have embraced the Orthodox faith and now worship and practice their Orthodox faith according to the venerable and ancient traditions of the West – traditions whose roots go back to that time when the Western Church was still fully Orthodox. Many westerners who have embraced Orthodoxy have known it only in its eastern forms, primarily because these have been the predominantly visible forms of Orthodoxy in the West. Particularly ...

The April 2 edition of Newsweek Magazine featured a piece (just in time for Western Easter) by journalist Andrew Sullivan.  It is a heartfelt piece, urging its readers to ignore (i.e. reject) all forms of contemporary Christianity and to embrace Jesus instead.  Reading this thoughtful essay, I could not shake the feeling that Mr. Sullivan was intending his piece to be edgy and radical.  But for those whose reading is not confined to Newsweek Magazine, it was painfully apparent that Mr. Sullivan was in fact re-issuing The Same Old Thing.  Far from being new and radical in his proposal, he was trudging down a well-trodden road in the wake of many people before him.  The road even has a name, ...

Avoid unsavoury company and your soul will always be very peaceful.

The problem of power and the innate tendency towards its arbitrary use has exercised the human mind since at least the time that political philosophy has existed as a discipline. ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’*. Princes and governments are by far the most dangerous elements in any society. Excessive power is inherently dangerous and produces negative results. It leads to grossly mistaken judgments and decisions, disregard of danger, egocentricity and a lack of compassion towards others. Domination and force are two necessary components of the exercise of power. In the end, power can make its appearance in all human relations and the critical mind should examine the ways in which it is exercised and the repercussions ...